A strong holiday quarter helped to grow Apple's share of the U.S. smartphone market by 1.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, giving the iPhone a 25.3 percent share of users, according to a new report.

ComScore this week released its Mobile Subscriber Market Share findings for the three-month frame ending in December 2009. While competitors Research in Motion, Microsoft and Palm all lost ground in the domestic market, Apple further solidified its place as the No. 2 smartphone maker in the U.S.

In first was RIM, which had 41.6 percent of the holiday share. That was down 1 percent from the September quarter. Microsoft took third, also losing 1 percent from September, to 18 percent.

In fourth was Palm, dropping 2.2 percent to 6.1 percent in the December quarter. Google surged into fifth with a 5.2 percent share, up 2.7 percentage points from September 2009.

In all, there were 234 million people aged 13 and older in the U.S. using mobile devices in December 2009. Motorola was the top overall cell phone maker, with 23.5 percent of all U.S. mobile devices. As the smartphone market is much smaller than the overall cell phone market, Apple did not rank among the top five.

The top smartphone maker RIM came in fifth place -- behind LG, Samsung and Nokia -- with a 7 percent market share. While the BlackBerry maker lost ground in the smartphone market, it gained in the overall cell phone market, boosting its presence by 0.6 percent and closing the gap with fourth-place Nokia, which dropped 0.4 percent to 9.2 percentage points.

The study also found that most mobile phone users -- 63.1 percent -- use their handset to send text messages. In addition, 27.5 percent use a Web browser, 21.6 percent play games, 17.8 percent download applications, and 12.1 percent listen to music.

With more than 140,000 applications available on its App Store, Apple has by far the largest central online marketplace for software in the smartphone space.

While comScore's data is in terms of actual owned units in the U.S., last week IDC released a study on global smartphone sales, which found that Apple represented 14.4 percent of worldwide shipments. Apple shipped an estimated 25.1 million iPhones in all of 2009, and a record 8.7 million in the fourth quarter alone.

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance," said Ballmer. "It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance," said Ballmer. "It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."

The study also found that most mobile phone users -- 63.1 percent -- use their handset to send text messages. In addition, 27.5 percent use a Web browser, 21.6 percent play games, 17.8 percent download applications, and 12.1 percent listen to music.

Hmm...seems most of what people do with a iPhone (outside of making calls) is better done with a real computer with a real keyboard.

So the iPhone really a matter of convenience with it's smaller size, that's all.

I don't regret my decision to stick with a MBP and a cheap disposable phone with low monthly rates.

The money I saved the last two years not purchasing a iPhone is going to buy me one of those new i7 MacBook Pro's coming today.

opps did I tell a secret?

The danger is that we sleepwalk into a world where cabals of corporations control not only the mainstream devices and the software on them, but also the entire ecosystem of online services around...

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance," said Ballmer. "It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."

-Steve Ballmer, 2007

I might be wrong, but isn't Apple's marketshare about 1-2% worldwide?

In February 2009 Apple managed 1.1% marketshare

Quote:

Now, a report from ABI Research indicates that Apple did in fact meet its goal for cellphone market share, coming in with a 1.1% market share for all cellphones worldwide.

It's probably a little bit higher now, but I suspect it's still within the 2-3% Balmer was talking about.

first the iPhone and second his prediction of having 70% of the software on phones. it will be interesting to see if he has success with his prediction on the iPad. He doesn't have the imagination or vision to see where and how these products can be used, especially with the software store that Apple has built.

As the Apple iPhone has a 25.3% market share of smartphones, which is a small segment of all phones.

Also there is no way Steve Ballmer is going to get his software on even 60% of ALL phones, those companies rather write their own than give control to Redmond.

I think he's thinking that eventually all phones will become smartphones, then he see's a opportunity to infest the world with his inferior software even more. He's thinking software, not hardware like Apple does, so his statement is nothing more than advertising.

To gain worldwide adoption and to fulfill Steve Ballmers dreams, smartphones will have to come down significantly in price, which I feel Apple wouldn't want to compete in and leave the market if they couldn't create something newer with higher margins.

The danger is that we sleepwalk into a world where cabals of corporations control not only the mainstream devices and the software on them, but also the entire ecosystem of online services around...

It's probably a little bit higher now, but I suspect it's still within the 2-3% Balmer was talking about.

IIRC, at the time of the interview with Balmer, the iPhone was only available in the US. He mentioned the AT&T subsidy specifically. It is unlikely that he was refering to the global market as opposed to the US only market. Especially since MS market share globally is much lower than it is in the US (once again IIRC).

The fact is that Ballmer is a salesman. All of is training is in marketing, and he's never been named as anyone with real vision. Therefore it is not surprising that he would inflate his own numbers when no one is likely to challenge him, and equally likely that he will predict doom and gloom for his competitors. He's essentially the Cheerleader-in-Chief.

I'd be far more interested in the opinion of someone at MS who's actually involved in product development. They might give a more authentic opinion on any given topic.

Hmm...seems most of what people do with a iPhone (outside of making calls) is better done with a real computer with a real keyboard.

So the iPhone really a matter of convenience with it's smaller size, that's all.

I don't regret my decision to stick with a MBP and a cheap disposable phone with low monthly rates.

Only if that real computer with a real keyboard has a real 3G data connection anywhere/anytime. Does your cheap disposable phone have 3G data access that can be tethered to your real computer? If not, it's a totally inadequate substitute.

Plus, of course that real computer with a real keyboard is much heavier and bulkier, and less likely to be with you everywhere/everytime.

It's probably a little bit higher now, but I suspect it's still within the 2-3% Balmer was talking about.

The real problem with what Ballmer said was that he implied that WinMo had "60% or 70% or 80%" of all phones. At the time of iPhone launch in 2007, WinMo had only 12.2% of all smartphones; in Q3 of 2009, it was down to 8.8% (and that's compared to iPhone OS at 18%).

The real problem with what Ballmer said was that he implied that WinMo had "60% or 70% or 80%" of all phones. At the time of iPhone launch in 2007, WinMo had only 12.2% of all smartphones; in Q3 of 2009, it was down to 8.8% (and that's compared to iPhone OS at 18%).

With 63.1% of users using their phone for texting I wonder how many iPhones would sell if ATT didn't require a data plan. I have often wondered the same with the Blackberry. I believe far more iPhone family plans would be sold if you didn't have to add an additional 30.00 for each phone.

Far more people would buy iPhones if AT&T didn't charge still another $20 extra for unlimited texting.

Good point. We can infer he's talking about smartphones from the previous sentence.

My understanding is that Balmer was talking about the overall cell phone market. Microsoft's aspiration has always been to have Windows Mobile appear on the majority of all phones eventually. Everyone understands that the smartphone market is small but rapidly expanding.

In fact, looking it up, the full quote is "Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.". He's clearly talking about cell phones and not just smartphones.

You're making an incorrect assumption here (that this was what Balmer was talking about), and comparing Apple's to Oranges.

The figures you are quoting are for cell-phone market share, the figures the article refers to (and Balmer), are the smartphone share.

I think you need to read it again. I can't see anywhere that Balmer said he was talking about smartphones only. In fact, the 1.3billion figure indicates he is talking about ALL mobile phones, and in that respect he is dead right about the 2-3% marketshare.

My understanding is that Balmer was talking about the overall cell phone market. Microsoft's aspiration has always been to have Windows Mobile appear on the majority of all phones eventually. Everyone understands that the smartphone market is small but rapidly expanding.

In fact, looking it up, the full quote is "Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.". He's clearly talking about cell phones and not just smartphones.

Perhaps, but since WinMo has never been made for general phones I have to assume he was implying the smartphone market with those figures. I can't imagine for a second that he expects MS to own 60-80% of the entire handset OS marketshare with just a smartphone OS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenoBell

RIM is loosing a little bit of market share while they sell buy one get one free. So they cannot afford to stop.

Someone is going to point out it's the carriers, not RiM, but they failing to note the initial price drop on RiM's end to make this possible with the same contract. RiM's longterm plan is going to hurt them. I really expected more from their Storms. They need to go with a capacitance touch screen and focus a little more on media and internet capabilities. Adobe isn't even making a version of Flash 10.1 for Blackberry, that'll upset some BB users.

Quote:

Originally Posted by extremeskater

Yeah between the additional 20 for texting and 30 for data it really bumps up the price of a plan

The $20 for unlimited texting is an extra fee, not required. Don't you have to be doing over 50 SMS per day to even need the unlimited text option? It's a racket. The carriers have an oligopoly.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Yeah between the additional 20 for texting and 30 for data it really bumps up the price of a plan

There are plenty of iPhone apps that gives you almost free unlimited SMS (send and receive) using your data plans only (no need for SMS plan). It might not be as convenient as having people send SMS to your phone number but for those who are heavy SMS users it will not be an issue.

I think you need to read it again. I can't see anywhere that Balmer said he was talking about smartphones only. In fact, the 1.3billion figure indicates he is talking about ALL mobile phones, and in that respect he is dead right about the 2-3% marketshare.

Consider that Jobs stated they want 1% of the handset market. That would mean Ballmer was making fun of the iPhone by claiming it would get 2 to 3 times as much sales, meaning 30M in the first year. It seems more likely he was saying Apple would only get 2-3% of the smartphone market, not 2-3x as much marketshare and sales than Jobs himself predicted.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

The carriers are not subsidizing BB at 100%, RIM is making less revenue from those types of sales.

No.

RIMs profits dont take a hit when carriers subsidize phones at their discretion. When RIM sells the phone to the carrier they are paid immediately. VZW pushes BlackBerry hard because they get the phones for roughly 230ish for a Curve 8530 and and 300ish for a 9630, so making that money up through subscription costs is nothing (only 10 of your 30 dollars go to RIM for BIS, so the carrier gets 480.00 over two years, covering the phone)

Someone is going to point out it's the carriers, not RiM, but they failing to note the initial price drop on RiM's end to make this possible with the same contract. RiM's longterm plan is going to hurt them. I really expected more from their Storms. They need to go with a capacitance touch screen and focus a little more on media and internet capabilities. Adobe isn't even making a version of Flash 10.1 for Blackberry, that'll upset some BB users.

You know i was going to call you on this one bro.

The Storm is using a capacitive touchscreen (i had the 9530 from launch till last Sept when i got my Bold), but it uses Surepress technology as well. If you like it or not is your decision. The UI is really the killer on the Storm, while it works on your traditional BlackBerry, it doesnt translate well to a touchscreen. The Storm 9550 will see minor improvements, as RIM is supposedly set to overhaul the Storm 3 for November.

Media Player is fine, as long as it plays movies and music is all i care about. Web Browser blows but Webkit should (emphasis on should) be here in the Summer, and will run on a proxy as well like it currently does.

Also, RIM is part of the Open Screen Project and is bringing Flash to their BlackBerry devices, but no release date has been given as of yet. They made this announcement when they announced support for OpenGL on their devices...which are currently only CDMA devices.

Right but who doesn't txt msg? I would assume most iPhone users add that extra fee for txt messaging.

What I was saying is ATT could have a non 3g option like Verizon has, that would not only sell more iPhone but it would bring in more customers and not put more stress on their already stressed 3G network. Those users could simply have an iPhone and use WiFi.

Like with Verizon this would offer an option to families that wanted to be on a family plan that don't have a need for data.

I don't do SMS. I have email and IM. Anyone who doesn't have a smartphone can call me. Pretty much everyone I know has a smartphone and the ones that don't would likely not know what an "SMS" is, and I'm not referring to the initialism.

An optional data plan would increase Apple's sales dramatically overnight. I'd think that many just want an iPod Touch + phone, but aren't near AT&T 3G or care about that much internet.

Perhaps we'll see it this year now that the iPad is contract free. Note: you'll have to pay more upfront if the only difference is a lack of carrier subsidization on data + phone. I don't see a version without 3G HW to appear unless Apple goes with a much smaller version akin to the iPod Nano, but that seems even less likely.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"